Remember "The Gate" ??????

Ever since we installed that silly gate at the top of the stairs, Hayden has made it his mission to disable it. Well, Mission accomplished. He has figured out how to push the little button and slide it out of the lock and escape from the 2nd floor. Boy are we in trouble now.

Our current way of securing the gate seems to be working, but I give him 2 weeks max. before he figures it out. I've attached a carabiner to the gate and the handrail. After he figures that out, well, I guess all we can do is pray... or set up some sort of shocking device like they use for dogs. (Just kidding - don't call CPS!)

Surviving Spring Break

We (I) survived Spring Break! It was unusually long thanks to an early visit from Michael's brothers' family. They have Spring Break a full 2 weeks before we do. Which almost made our Spring Break the longest in history. You see, we (Michael) got a little mixed up about the dates for our S.B. and I totally bought into it because quite frankly, it made sense, but anywho... Amanda got an extra day off from school as a result and if it hadn't been for my good friend Carlee, she would have had two weeks off from school!

Whilst the family was here we went to Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios. It was a blast! Even with me prego. I had fun with the kids at the Dr. Suess land and really didn't feel as cheated as I thought I would by the ride restrictions elsewhere. We had a full day of fun and I got to know my niece and nephew a little better. My favorite thing about Universal is that Amanda didn't really know and love many of the characters and didn't feel that overwhelming need to beg for merchandise like she does at Disney. No princesses, no Mickey = No Whining! Yippee!

The camera was left at home, but Michael got some pics from his brother... just waiting on my hubby to send them on over to me to post.

Amanda is back at school today and it's a little weird... I miss her!

"He was a skaterboy..."

Proof of Life

Just some random recent photos - nothing exceptional - just proof that my kids are still alive....


in spite of the toxic McDonald's french fries...


... and lack of regular dental care

...and close supervision.

Hayden is our little daredevil. He'll climb on any toy and stack up toys to climb on just to get closer to those "no-no" items that mommy and daddy keep up high. And he does it with a smile!

Easter Bunnies and other creepy characters

Is it just me or does any one else find the ritual of dragging your kids through a long line at the mall to sit on the lap of some unknown man/woman dressed as the Easter Bunny JUST PLAIN WEIRD?

I find it a little disturbing...

The unmasked Easter Bunnies are oddly the most disturbing to me. It's all the makeup I suppose and the similarities to a clown ( I loathe clowns).

I also find it disturbing/sad that my daughter has a classmate who has never heard of or been to a church or other place of worship, yet visited the Easter Bunny and received the bounty of sugary sweets on Easter morning.

For the record, the Florida Gove's did not visit the Easter Bunny this year and sadly, there was no egg hunt on the agenda either. Small baskets of treats did appear Easter morning - much smaller than in years past. And other than missing her Aunt Lala's annual Easter egg hunt back in Arizona, Amanda seemed perfectly content. The primary has a wonderful lesson about the atonement and the resurrection that Amanda *sort* of listened to. But I am happy to say that though this years focus on the true meaning of Easter was a little blurry, the gimmicks and characters were greatly minimized. This should help set the stage for next year when the "Easter Basket" will be transformed into something more spiritually focused and less chocolate filled.

A short story by Hayden Gove

This weekend was a big weekend for me. It was the weekend that I got duped by my daddy.
He totally tricked me. Let me explain...

Daddy had a very important project he was working on.
He was building something and I could tell he needed my help.


I fixed his spinning tool thingy...




I got into those small spaces that daddy's can't fit into...


Then I took inventory of the parts...



I thought that a Dr. Seuss style project would be more interesting,
but Daddy insisted on "correcting" it...



And then (this is where I got duped) I realized what the big project was! I was SO OFFENDED! I was so IRRATE! To think, I worked my little diapered butt off putting together a PRISON GATE to keep "toddlers" out of "danger". phftt.


W h a t e v e r...

That innocent little face...

This morning was a wild one. Little Man Destruction woke up before the rest of us at some ungodly hour and quietly made his way downstairs - where he stood screaming bloody murder. I think he thought we'd all be down there to greet him and got freaked out by the dark silence. I went downstairs picked him and and he promptly fell asleep in my arms. I put him to bed.

Sometime around 6:30 this morning when Michael and I are usually *sort of* awake he made his way downstairs and into the kitchen. I heard him but didn't quite register the danger. Normally the baby gate is up and he can't get into the kitchen so I didn't see much harm or reason to run down the stairs. Not so this morning. We could hear him moving a chair to climb on the table and Amanda went running down the stairs to help. Hayden knew he was in trouble and decided to go for broke. He threw a glass that was on the table at Amanda! Glass shattered, Kids screamed, Mommy screamed and ran down the stairs in record time. Oh the drama! Oh the TERROR!

Fortunately the only injury was a small pin-sized cut on Amanda's foot.

I guess it's time for ANOTHER gate!

all tuckered out...

Little man (A.K.A. gremlin, WMD, little booger...) finds the oddest places to fall asleep. I'm afraid this location was the result of his mommy ignoring him while reading blogs in the kitchen. Poor little guy.

Lest you believe he is terribly neglected, here are some cuter pictures of him...

My Favorite Day the Week - Not!

Any mom of school age kids will relate with me on this one.

There are 3 things you can guarantee will happen on the day you woke up too late to take a shower:
1. You're hair will be greasy and/or totally unmanageable and dirty looking.

2. You will resort to wearing sweatpants with paint all over them and an old t-shirt from your high school days.

3. You will arrive at school just late enough to have to go into the school and sign in your kid out in above mentioned state.

Add pregnancy ick and that pretty much described my day yesterday. I wasn't exactly greeted with the most sympathetic of secretaries (ie wardens) either. They just looked at me with the disgust that could only be taught in the snottiest of New York prep schools. Why they decided to torture us poor simple folks in Florida, I'll never know. I'm sure they had a good laugh at my expense.

Ughhh....

Valentines Day - UPDATED!

Just so you all don't think I fell off the face of the earth...

I've been wanting to post for a while but have waited so I could post some pictures of the BERGER COOKIES I got from my sweet honey bunches of oats for Valentines Day. Pictures taken - USB cord for camera MIA. So you're just gonna have to imagine the pure delight on my face whilst I bit into my favorite cookies of all time. Yummm...

Now not everyone can appreciate the cookie - some find it quite rich and sort of, well sloppy looking. That's fine. More for me!

My gift for Michael might seem sort of lame and more for me than him. I took him to get his wedding band resized since he hasn't been able to wear it for over 2 years. He's lost some weight now though and is looking a little too handsome. Some blonde chick was hitting on him at a convention and that pretty much did it for me.

Too bad he won't get it back until next week. : (

I've been pretty sick lately. Nausea, exhaustion, and my favorite - dizziness. This better be one cute little Gove baby!
UPDATE!
See? He loves me, he REALLY REALLY LOVES ME!